(1)
That the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee be thanked for its
input to the budget setting process.

(2) That Council be
recommended to:-

(1)
Approve the budget for 2019/2020 and the Medium Term Financial Plan
as set out in summary form in the Appendix attached to the Cabinet
report.

(2)
Approve an increase in Council Tax of £5 (3.35%) for
2019/2020, the maximum allowable for lower tier councils.

(3)
Approve the use of £1.48m of New Homes Bonus to meet the
costs of the Connected Knowledge Programme in 2019/2020.

(4)
Approve the proposed fees and charges as set in Appendix E to the
Cabinet report.

(5)
Approve the level of Band D Special Expenses charge for 2019/2020
as set out in Appendix F to the Cabinet report.

(b)Reason(s) for Decision(s)

The Council is
statutorily required to set a budget for 2019/2020 and plan for
expenditure in subsequent years based upon the Medium Term
Financial Plan. The Budget proposals
reflect the transition to a new unitary authority.

(c)Alternative Options Considered

The development of the
budget proposals has involved a number of key elements of choice as
set out in previous reports to Cabinet.

(d)Relevant Scrutiny Committee

Finance and Services.
The Committee Chairman attended Cabinet
to elaborate upon his Committee’s deliberations. Cabinet accepted all the comments of the Scrutiny
Committee and in particular:-

·
It was confirmed that the business cases of all of the projects
that formed part of the Connected Knowledge Programme were analysed
carefully by a programme management board and were and would
continue to be assessed having regard to the likely requirements of
the new unitary authority. The Cabinet
Member for Finance and Resources would be invited to attend
meetings of the programme management board.

·
It was agreed that the sum of £10,759 should be re-instated
in the budget for funding to a number of voluntary and community
sector organisations including the Citizens Advice Bureau and that
in order to give those organisations some certainty whilst the new
council was being established, this funding should be for a two
year period.

The budget proposals
will now be subject to consideration by full Council and are not
therefore subject to call-in.

(e)Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

As a member of an
organisation that contributed financially towards the work of the
CAB, Councillor Mordue declared a personal interest in this item
insofar as it affected the future funding arrangements for this
organisation.

Minutes:

The report to Cabinet on 18 December, 2018,
had presented a set of initial budget proposals. That report had highlighted uncertainty around a
number of issues, particularly further reductions in Government
Grant, retained business rates and New Homes Bonus. Since the December meeting, work had continued to
refine the budget assumptions. In
practice, little had changed materially at a service
level. The significant elements of the
final budget proposals were around the impact of the Government
Grant numbers and changes to other centrally funded
support.

As set out previously, it was intended to
support the Connected Knowledge Programme through the use of NHB
reserves. The Programme underpinned
many of the components of service delivery and commercial AVDC, and
therefore the ability to meet the financial agenda of the Council
over the coming years. The final
recommended budget had been attached to the Cabinet report as
Appendix A1. A summary of the changes,
savings and pressures which had been used to arrive at the summary
position had been attached as Appendices A2, C and D.

The Government had announced the draft Grant
settlement for councils on 13 December, 2018. Despite some indications that there might be
significant changes to reflect on-going pressures on the wider
local government sector, the Government had largely honoured its
commitments contained within the four year settlement and had left
the pre-announced Grant numbers mostly unchanged. The important numbers of Revenue Support Grant and
Baselined Business Rates were virtually the same as those that had
been announced for 2019/20 last year, within the four year
settlement. As had been anticipated,
the Government had also provided extra resources in 2019/20 to
cancel the negative RSG adjustment to tariffs and
top-up. the confirmed impact of the
change would benefit the Council by £687,000. This would be a non-recurrent re-aligning of
funding.

Cabinet had previously agreed that the funding
should be ring fenced to support likely and known pressures during
2019/20, to include £0.3m to support the on-going housing
growth agenda in Aylesbury Vale and the associated infrastructure
schemes, such as HS2, East-West Rail and the Oxford/Cambridge
Expressway. Cabinet felt that the
remaining £0.4m should be allocated to meet the costs of the
car park changes (replacement equipment) detailed in the Car Park
Strategy.

The Government had also announced
consultations on the further progression of the Fair Funding Review
in advance of the provisional 2019/20 settlement, and the redesign
of business rates retention by the end of the year. A new system (Fair Funding), based on the
Government consultation, would be introduced in 2020/21 alongside a
Government wide Comprehensive Funding review.

The Fair Funding review would affect how
funding was allocated and redistributed between local authorities
from 2020 onwards. It was expected to
use three main cost drivers: population, deprivation and sparsity,
together with additional cost drivers related to specific local
authority services.

Alongside the new methodology, in 2020/21, a
new phase for the business rates retention programme would also be
introduced. The aim was for local
authorities to retain ...
view the full minutes text for item 1.

That Council be
recommended to approve the updated Capital Programme for the period
2019/20 to 2022/23, onwards as set out in summary form at Appendix
A to the Cabinet report.

(b)Reason(s) for Decision(s)

The Council is
required to set a capital budget for the coming year and as part of
prudential financial management, incorporate a longer term view of
capital activity. Regular review of the
capital Programme is essential, especially when a number of major
schemes are running in parallel. The
CIPFA Prudential Code (December 2017) includes a requirement to
produce a capital strategy.

(c)Alternative Options Considered

None as
such. The proposed Capital Programme
represents the allocation of anticipated resources in accordance
with corporate priorities.

(d)Relevant Scrutiny Committee

Finance and
Services. That Committee considered the
Capital Programme at its meeting on 14 January, 2019. The Committee Chairman attended the Cabinet
meeting to elaborate upon the Committee’s deliberations.

Cabinet accepted all
of the recommendations of the Scrutiny Committee.

Cabinet’s final
recommendation will now be considered by full Council and therefore
is not subject to call-in.

(e)Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

None.

Minutes:

Cabinet received the updated Capital Programme
for the period 2019/20 to 2022/23 onwards. An interim report had been submitted to Cabinet on
18 December,2018. As had been reported
at that time, the focus of the Capital Programme was on the
delivery of existing schemes already approved by the
Council. The Programme reflected the
Council’s strategy of ensuring prudent use and maximisation
of available capital resources. The
earlier report had made reference to an additional request for
funding from the Aylesbury Vale Enterprise Zone Board in relation
to an investment proposal at Westcott.
The report now before Cabinet could be viewed in full on the
Council’s web site.

It was reported that the Capital Programme for
2019/20 had now been updated to include provision for the Westcott
investment proposal and the latest report (posted on the
Council’s web site) contained more detailed
information. AVDC was the accountable
body for the Aylesbury Vale enterprise Zone. The proposed funding of £1.2m would be
recovered through a combination of loan repayment and the
recoupment of business rates collected and retained from the
Enterprise Zone.

The CIPFA revised 2017 Prudential and Treasury
management Codes required, for 2019/20, that all local authorities
prepare an additional report setting out the Council’s
capital strategy. To comply with the
statutory requirements, an expanded, but still abridged (because of
the unitary proposal) would be presented in the Treasury management
Strategy. The Cabinet report set out
the key principles of the capital strategy.

The creation of a new unitary authority would
occur during the period of the capital plan. This removed the need for medium term planning for
Aylesbury Vale as a single entity organisation. However, the Council remained obligated to hand
over its affairs to the new organisation in the best possible
financial state. At this early stage,
the financial implications of reorganisation were yet to be fully
understood. However, future investment
and borrowing decisions might be influenced by the outcome of the
unitary arrangements.

The Cabinet report had been considered by the
Finance and Services scrutiny Committee on 14 January,
2019. The Chairman of that Committee
attended the meeting to elaborate upon the Committee’s
deliberations. The Scrutiny Committee
had been supportive of the use of residual Right to Buy capital
receipts and nominal sums from New Homes Bonus for affordable
housing, to fund new affordable housing schemes. The Committee had also been supportive of the
funding proposal for the Space Catapult Innovation Centre at the
Westcott Enterprise Zone.

In addition, the Committee had been supportive
of the remaining £341,000 from the sale of the Elmhurst
Community Centre being used for the maintenance of community
centres in the Aylesbury Special Expenses Area. The Committee had asked for, (and Cabinet
confirmed), a breakdown in due course of how the £341,000 had
been allocated.

RESOLVED –

(1)
That the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee be thanked for its
feedback on the Capital Programme.

That AVDC’s
Equality Report for 2018 be approved for publication in order to
meet the Council’s statutory duty.

(b)Reason(s) for Decision(s)

This is a statutory
requirement.

(c)Alternative Options Considered

None.

(d)Relevant Scrutiny Committee

Finance and
Services. That Committee considered the
report at its meeting on 14 January, 2019. The Committee Chairman attended the Cabinet
meeting and elaborated upon the Committee’s deliberations.
The Committee’s comments which were essentially around future
reporting information were accepted.

(e)Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

None.

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a report, also submitted to
the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee on 14 January, 2019,
and summarised in the Minutes of that meeting, giving an assessment
of the Council’s performance against the Public Sector
Equality Duty and the requirements of Regulation 2 of the Equality
Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee
attended the Cabinet meeting and elaborated upon his
Committee’s deliberations. In
particular, Committee Members had noted that a number of requests
that they had made in 2018 on future reporting had been taken on
board in the preparation of the latest report. It had been suggested that in future it would be
helpful to include some information on why there were generally
more females in the SG4 and SG5 grades.
The Committee had been particularly pleased to note that the pay
equality position at AVDC was excellent.

RESOLVED –

That the content of the Equality report for
2018 be noted and the document be approved for publication in order
to meet the Council’s statutory duty.

That the draft
Business Plan for Aylesbury Vale Estates (AVE) for 2019/2022 be
approved. (A copy was attached to the confidential part of the
agenda).

(b)Reason(s) for Decision(s)

The Council’s
consent is required to the Business Plan in accordance with the
agreement with AVE.

(c)Alternative Options Considered

Not to approve the
Business Plan. Representatives of AVE
were present at the Cabinet meeting to respond to questions from
Cabinet Members.

(d)Relevant Scrutiny Committee

Economy and Business
Development. That Committee had
considered the draft Business Plan at its meeting on 10 December,
2018 and the Cabinet report included the Committee’s
comments. The Committee Chairman could
not be present at the Cabinet meeting due to another
commitment. Cabinet Members pursued the
comments made by the Committee with the AVE representatives and
were satisfied with the response.

(e)Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

As a member of the AVE
Board, Councillor Mrs Ward declared a prejudicial interest in this
item and left the meeting whilst the matter was discussed.

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report on the
Aylesbury Vale Estates (AVE) draft business plan for 2019/2022,
submitted also to the Economy and Business Development Scrutiny
Committee on 10 December, 2018. The
Scrutiny Committee had had an opportunity to question the asset
managers on various aspects of the plan. (A copy of the draft business plan had been
circulated in full as part of the confidential Cabinet
agenda). Representatives of the asset
managers also attended this meeting.

Whilst the Scrutiny Committee had been
encouraged that AVE was effective at collecting rents, and that
dividends were expected to be returned to the Council, concern had
been expressed about proposed site disposals and the business
plan’s over reliance on these disposal receipts within the
financial model. Members had also felt
that disposals might be due to the demand for dividends to be paid,
and that once a site had been sold, it was permanently off the
portfolio. The Committee had hoped that
there would be more ideas on how Hale Leys might adapt to the
difficulties currently being experienced in the retail market.

Cabinet Members raised these issues with the
asset managers who responded that disposals in the main were not
strategic sites. The objective was to
create a diversity of new development.
The asset managers were fully cognative
of the issues facing high streets across the country. and were
doing all they could to address these.

RESOLVED –

That the draft Aylesbury Vale Estates business
plan for 2019/2022 be approved.

NOTE: As a member of the AVE board, Councillor
Mrs Ward declared a prejudicial interest in the above item and left
the meeting whilst it was under discussion.

5.

Exclusion of the Public

The following
matter is for consideration by Members “In
Committee”. It will therefore be
necessary to

RESOLVE
–

That under Section
100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded
from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds
that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as
defined in the Paragraph indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the
Act:-

Item No. 8 –
Aylesbury Vale Estates (AVE) Business Plan

The public
interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest
in disclosing the information because the report contains
information relating to the financial or business affairs of
organisations (including the Authority holding that information)
and disclosure of commercially sensitive information would
prejudice negotiations for contracts and land disposals or
transactions.